During the operation of a turbine engine, turbine vanes, among other components, are subjected to the high temperatures of combustion. The vanes can be made of materials that are suited for high temperature applications, such as composite matrix composites (CMC). However, material selection alone will not enable the vanes to withstand such an environment. The vanes need to be cooled. Though a variety of systems can adequately cool a vane, manufacturing capabilities and other considerations can render a number of cooling systems infeasible or otherwise not possible in a CMC vane. Thus, there is a need for a CMC vane construction that facilitates the inclusion of intricate three dimensional cooling passages using relatively conventional manufacturing and assembly techniques.